Virtual machine powers off automatically with an error "MXUserAllocSerialNumber: too many locks"
Article ID: 317824
Updated On:
Products
VMware
VMware vSphere ESXi
Issue/Introduction
Symptoms:
-
MKS error on virtual Machine console.
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In the /vmfs/volumes/datastore/virtual_machine/vmware.log file, you see entries similar to:
2017-04-06T17:23:14.698Z| vcpu-0| I125: GuestMsg: Too many channels opened.
2017-04-06T17:23:14.699Z| vcpu-0| I125: GuestMsg: Too many channels opened.
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In the vmware.log file, you see entries similar to:
vcpu-0| E105: PANIC: MXUserAllocSerialNumber: too many locks!vcpu-0| W115: A core file is available in "/vmfs/volumes/VOLUME_UUID/VM_NAME/vmx-zdump.000"mks| W115: Panic in progress... ungrabbingmks| I125: MKS: Release starting (Panic)mks| I125: MKS: Release finished (Panic)
Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.
Cause
During normal VM operation, VMware Tools services (version 9.10.0 and later) create vSocket connections to exchange data with the hypervisor. When a large number of such connections are made, the hypervisor may run out of lock serial numbers and the virtual machine powers off with an error.
Resolution
This is a known issue affecting VMware Tools 9.10.0 and later running in the guests on ESXi 6.0 and later.
For 6.0
This issue is resolved in ESXi 6.0 Patch Release ESXi600-201706001, available at VMware Patch Downloads. For more information on downloading patch, see How to download patches in Customer Connect (1021623).
For 6.5
For 6.5
This issue is resolved in ESXI 6.5 Update 1, available at VMware Downloads.
To workaround this issue in ESXi 6.0 and 6.5:
To workaround this issue in ESXi 6.0 and 6.5:
- Shut down the virtual machine.
- Add the guest_rpc.rpci.usevsocket parameter to false in the virtual_machine.vmx file:
- Connect to the host running the virtual machine with an SSH session. For more information, see Using ESXi Shell in ESXi 5.x and 6.0 (2004746).
- Navigate to the /vmfs/volumes/virtual_machine_datastore/virtual_machine/virtual_machine.vmx file.
- Open the virtual_machine.vmx file using a text editor.
- Add the guest_rpc.rpci.usevsocket = "FALSE" parameter.
- Connect to the host running the virtual machine with an SSH session. For more information, see Using ESXi Shell in ESXi 5.x and 6.0 (2004746).
- Power on the virtual machine.
Note: the above workaround will:
* put VMware Tools running in limited functionality;
* cause VGAuthService process high CPU usage with VMware Tools version 12.1.x.
Additional Information
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